Saudi Arabia recovers circuit boards from drone strike weapon, US official says

The US says a crucial discovery has been made in the Saudi oil attacks, with the Trump administration firing off a fresh warning to Iran.

Saudi Arabia has recovered fully intact circuit boards from one of the weapons used on its oil facilities that will provide concrete evidence of where the attacks came from, a US official says.

The official told CNN that Saudis and the US expect to be able to trace the attacks to Iran for the point of origin of those boards and possible flight data.

They said the weapon from which the circuit board was retrieved was one of the missiles that missed its target and landed in the desert intact.

Saturday’s attack on Saudi Arabia was the most damaging blow on the Middle Eastern kingdom in more than four years of civil war in Yemen.

It helped drive world oil prices up by 10 per cent on Monday — the fastest rise in over a decade.

Saudi Arabia has recovered fully intact circuit boards from one of the weapons used on its oil facilities, according to a US official.

Abqaiq is the world’s biggest crude-stabilisation facility, refining some seven million barrels a day. Khurais produces about 1.5 million barrels of crude a day. Both facilities were hit on Saturday.

Iranian-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen, which Saudi Arabia are at war with, claimed responsibility, saying drones were launched in the attack.

Saudi Arabia, however, has claimed the attack did not come from Yemen and said initial investigations show Iranian weapons were used. The kingdom, though, has not yet said where the attack was launched from or what kind of weapons were involved.

The US has made similar allegations, going so far as to say the attack may have been launched from Iran itself or nearby Iraq, where Iran has powerful proxy militias on the ground.

Iran continues to deny the charges.

US RAMPS UP WARNINGS TO IRAN

The circuit board recovery reports come as the Trump administration is ramping up its aggressive rhetoric against Iran.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will leave today for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to “counter Iranian aggression”, officials said.

He is expected to meet with the Saudi Crown Prince to discuss “the recent attack on the kingdom’s oil facilities and co-ordinate efforts to counter Iranian aggression in the region”, the State Department said.

The Trump administration has ramped up its aggressive rhetoric against Iran.

Mr Pompeo’s trip was announced by Vice President Mike Pence who, reiterating the tone set by President Donald Trump, said it was “certainly looking like Iran was behind these attacks”. “As the President said, we don’t want war with anybody but the United States is prepared,” Mr Pence said at the Heritage Foundation.

“We’re locked and loaded and we’re ready to defend our interests and allies in the region, make no mistake about it,” he added, mirroring Mr Trump’s combat-heavy tweets yesterday.

Another US official earlier said on condition of anonymity that Washington was certain the missiles came from Iranian soil.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani maintains the attack was carried out in self-defence by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who enjoy backing from Tehran and have borne the brunt of a Saudi-led air campaign that has contributed to a humanitarian crisis.

Security experts have said it’s highly likely the US will respond with a show of force if Iran is proved responsible for the attacks.

Dr Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told news.com.au the US would most likely take direct action.

“This was a serious escalation of the conflict. They attacked not just Saudi oil but the world’s oil, and if you look at the last few months, it’s the Iranians that are doing all the provocations here,” he said. “I think US credibility would be on the line if they didn’t respond. As their opening gambit they could use air and missile strikes to attack Iranian nuclear facilities.

“The Iranians are now steadily breaking out from the constraints of the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) and building up material for a nuclear weapon. America sees this as an opportunity to strike and prevent this from happening.”

Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said more than half of the country’s crude oil production that was impacted in the Saturday attack has been recovered.

He said production capacity at its targeted plants would be fully restored by the end of the month.

The attack took out 5.7 million barrels of crude oil production per day for the kingdom or around 5 per cent of the world’s daily production.

Following reports of how quickly the kingdom could restore production, oil prices fell on Tuesday. Brent, the international benchmark, was down 6 per cent to $64.89 a barrel. US oil was down 5.4 per cent to $59.50.

— with wires